Principal Financial tops estimates

Sales of full-service accumulation products hits record

AlistairBarr

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Principal Financial Group Inc. reported better than expected first-quarter results late Monday after the company sold a record amount of retirement-savings products.

Net income came in at $285.7 million, or $1.01 a share, compared with $205.5 million or 68 cents a share a year earlier, Principal said. Operating earnings, which exclude net realized investment gains and losses, were $240.2 million, or 85 cents a share, up from $209.2 million or 69 cents a share in the same period last year.

The company was expected to make 76 cents a share in profit, according to the average estimate of analysts in a Thomson First Call survey.

Principal
PFG, +2.22%
is benefiting as employees funnel more of their paychecks into 401(k) accounts and other retirement-savings vehicles that are specializations of the company. Shares in Principal have more than doubled in the past five years.

During the first quarter, Principal said that it sold a record $2.9 billion worth of full-service accumulation products.

Almost $1.7 billion of those sales were generated by a Principal product called Total Retirement Suite, which integrates defined benefit, defined contribution, employee stock ownership and nonqualified retirement plans for employers, according to the company.

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